Jeff Knight, director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans, admits it’s been a struggle to pin-point any significant progress in the market in the light of new figures from the latest House Price Index.

Mr Knight made his observation in the light of new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which includes all residential properties bought for market value in the UK.

The latest data shows that the average price of a home was £226,000 in July; £11,000 higher than July 2016 and up £2,000 on the previous month. House price growth has slowed since mid-2016 but has remained broadly around 5.0 per cent during 2017, says the ONS.

And Mr Knight believes potential buyers are facing climbing prices against continued limited supply, further encumbered by lagging wage growth in the market to date.

He added: “The underlying rate of purchasing continues to tick along, with buyers seizing opportunities to maximise record low mortgage rates. In the meantime, the rental sector offers a helping hand to tenants looking for temporary homes as they save for home ownership, and what we need now is for construction levels to be equally improved in this space so future availability will not fail to meet the cut.”